Wallace

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Cline is on U.S. Highway 90 and the Southern Pacific Railroad eighteen miles west of Uvalde in southwestern Uvalde County. The site was in Dawson County between 1858 and 1866. The community was first settled by Celeste Pingenot, from Castroville, who arrived with some cattle in 1870 and constructed a home on the south bank of Turkey Creek in 1871. During the 1870s he established a stagecoach depot complete with stables and corals, commonly referred to as the Turkey Creek Stage Stop. Pingenot also built a store and saloon near his home and established the Wallace Inn, named after his friend who brought mail to the site, William A. A. (Bigfoot) Wallace. Turkey Creek, as the settlement was called for most of the 1870s, was located near the Old Spanish Trail and was a rest stop for many travelers on their way west to Brackettville or to the silver mines near Chihuahua City, Mexico. Pingenot's small enterprise was the victim of cattle-thieving Indians and Mexican bandits during its first years of operation.

On July 14, 1878, a post office was established in Turkey Creek with Pingenot as postmaster. The name was officially changed to Wallace. August Cline, a German native, settled in Wallace in 1880 and took a job in Pingenot's general store. Cline became postmaster soon after the Texas and New Orleans Railroad reached the site in 1881. In 1883 the community was renamed Cline. By 1888 August Cline had moved the post office to his two-story rock house on the north side of Turkey Creek. Although the stage horses were cared for at Pingenot's stables and corrals, stage passengers dined at Cline's place. Celeste Pingenot's wife, Minnie, and her sister Sophie were gracious hostesses to railroad and mine workers, landladies to boarding teachers, and well-wishers to the numerous travelers who passed through the settlement in the 1880s. By 1892 Cline had an estimated population of seventy-five. In 1896 seventy-one students attended the one-teacher Cline school.

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Ruben E. Ochoa | © TSHA

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Adapted from the official Handbook of Texas, a state encyclopedia developed by Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). It is an authoritative source of trusted historical records.

Belongs to

Wallace is part of or belongs to the following places:

Currently Exists

No

Place type

Wallace is classified as a Town

Associated Names

  • (Cline)

Has Post Office

No

Is Incorporated

No